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PROCEEDINGS 



THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



APRIL 33, 1880, 



ON THE OCCASION OF 



The Presentation of Thomas Jefferson's 
Writing-Desk to the United States 



HEIRS OF THE LATE JOSEPH COOLIDGE, Jr. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1882. 



7*.s.fitfvG»>i§.,2<l»« ?iHrrt> 



PROCEEDINGS 



THE SENATE ASD HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



APRIL 2 3, 18 8 0, 

ON TOE OCCASION OF 

The Presentation of Thomas Jefferson's 
Writing- Desk to the United States 



HEIRS OF THE LATE JOSEPH COOLIDGE, Jr. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1882. 
014 






In exchange^ 
MAR 2 9 rV* 



PROCEEDINGS 

IN 

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT. 

A message in writing" from the President of 
the United States was '-communicated to the 
House by Mr. Pruden, one of his secretaries. 

PRESENTATION OF THOMAS JEFFERSON'S WRITING- 
DESK. 

Mr. Crapo. I ask unanimous consent of the 
House that there be taken from the Speaker's 
table the message of the President of the United 
States in reference to a memorial of Thomas 
Jefferson donated to the Government by its 
present owners, and ask that the same be read. 

The message was read, as follows : 

To the Senate and House of Representatives : 

I have the honor to inform Congress that Mr. J. Ran- 
dolph Coolidge, Dr. Algernon Coolidge, Mr. Thomas 

3 



Jefferson Coolidge, and Mrs. Ellen D wight, of Massa- 
chusetts, the heirs of the late Joseph Coolidge, jr., 
desire to present to the United States the desk on 
which the Declaration of Independence was written. 

It bears the following inscription in the handwriting 
of Thomas Jefferson : 

" Thomas Jefferson gives this writing-desk to Joseph 
Coolidge, jr., as a memorial of his affection. It was 
made from a drawing of his own by Ben. Randall, cab- 
inet-maker, of Philadelphia, with whom he first lodged 
on his arrival in that city, in May, 17 70, and is the 
identical one on which he wrote the Declaration of 
Independence. 

" Politics as well as religion has its superstitions. 
These, gaining strength with time, may one day give 
imaginary value to this relic for its association with 
the birth of the great charter of our independence. 

" Monticello, November 18, 1825." 

The desk was placed in my possession by Hon. Rob- 
ert C. Winthrop, and is herewith transmitted to Con- 
gress, with the letter of Mr. Winthrop expressing the 
wish of the donors " to offer it to the United States, 
that it may hereafter have a place in the Department 
of State in connection with the immortal instrument 
which was written upon it in 1776. v 

I respectfully recommend that such action may be 
taken by Congress as may be deemed appropriate with 
reference to a gift to the nation so precious in its his- 
tory and for the memorable associations which belong 
to ir. 

Rutherford B. Hayes. 

Executive Mansion, April 2,2,, 1880. 



Mr. Crapo. I now ask that the letter of Mr. 
Winthrop be read. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Washington, D. C, April 14, 1880. 

My Dear Sir : I have been privileged to bring- with 
me from Boston, as a present to the United States, a 
very precious historical relic. It is the little desk on 
which Mr. Jefferson wrote the original draught of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

This desk was given by Mr. Jefferson himself to 
my friend the late Joseph Coolidge, of Boston, at the 
time of his marriage to Jefferson's granddaughter, Miss 
Randolph ; and it bears an autograph inscription, of 
singular interest, written by the illustrious author of 
the Declaration in the very last year of his life. 

On the recent death of Mr. Coolidge, whose wife had 
died a year or two previously, the desk became the 
property of their children — Mr. J. Randolph Coolidge, 
Dr. Algernon Coolidge, Mr. Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 
and Mrs. Ellen D wight — who now desire to offer it to the 
United States, so that it may henceforth have a place 
in the Department of State, in connection with the im- 
mortal instrument which was written upon it in 1770. 

They have doue me the honor to make me the medium 
of this distinguished gift, aud I ask permission to place 
it in the hands of the Chief Magistrate of the nation in 
their name and at their request. 

Believe me, dear Mr. President, with the highest 
respect, very faithfully, your obedient servant, 

Robt. C. Winthrop. 

His Excellency Rutherford B. Hayes, 

President of the United States. 



6 

Mr. Crapo. Mr. Speaker, I now offer the fol- 
lowing joint resolution : 

Joint resolution No. 290. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
That the thanks of thi8 Congress be presented to J. 
Eandolph Coolidge, Dr. Algernon Coolidge, Mr. Thomas 
Jefferson Coolidge, and Mrs. Ellen Dwight, citizens of 
Massachusetts, for the patriotic gift of the writing-desk 
presented by Thomas Jefferson to their father, the late 
Joseph Coolidge, upon which the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was written. 

And be it further resolved, That this precious work is 
hereby accepted in the name of the United States, and 
the same be deposited for safe-keeping in the Depart- 
ment of State of the United States. 

And be it further resolved, That a copy of these reso- 
lutions, signed by the President of the Senate and the 
Speaker of the House of Kepresentatives, be transmit- 
ted to the donors. 

The joint resolution was read a first and sec- 
ond time. 

Mr. Crapo. Mr. Speaker, the message of the 
President and the letter of Mr. Winthrop, which 
have just been read, give the historical sketch 
of the relic, which by the munificent generosity 
of the family of the late Joseph Coolidge, of 
Boston, is now presented to Congress. The 



genuineness of this relic has been authenticated 
by the autograph inscription upon it by Jeffer- 
son himself, which states that this writing-desk, 
from drawings of his own, was made by Ben. 
Randall, cabinet-maker, of Philadelphia, with 
whom he lodged on his arrival in that city in 
May, 1776, and is the identical one on which he 
wrote the Declaration of Independence. 

The resolutions which I have offered propose 
that this desk be deposited for safe-keeping in 
the Department of State. A similar resolution 
was adopted by Congress in 1843, upon the 
occasion of the presentation to the United States 
by a citizen of Virginia of the sword of Wash- 
ington and the staff of Franklin. There is now 
confided to the keeping of the nation, with the 
sword of Washington and the cane of Franklin, 
the desk of Jefferson. 

What memories crowd upon us with the men- 
tion of these names. Washington, the soldier, 
whose sword was drawn for the independence 
of his country ; Franklin, the philosopher, the 
benefactor of his race, who with simple maxims 
pointed out the road to wealth and who disarmed 



8 

the lightning and the thunderbolt ; Jefferson, 
the accomplished and enthusiastic scholar, whose 
marvelous genius and masterly pen gave form 
to that immortal paper which proclaimed liberty 
to all mankind. These are names never to be 
forgotten. These men were the founders of the 
Republic. Their name and fame are secure, 
and in the centuries which are to follow will be 
treasured by a grateful and loving people among 
their choicest possessions. 

Mr. Speaker, the nation gladly accepts and 
will sacredly keep this invaluable relic. The 
article itself may be inconsiderable, but with this 
simple desk we associate a grand achievement. 
Upon it was written the great charter of civil 
liberty, the Declaration of American Independ- 
ence. We pay to the heroic hand who signed 
that wager of battle the honors which are paid 
to the heroes of the battle-field. It was not 
valor alone which secured to us self-government. 
The leaders in the revolt against the tyranny 
and the established institutions of the Old World 
had courage of opinion and were full of mature 
wisdom and incorruptible patriotism. The men 



9 

who signed the paper pledging their lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honor in support of 
the Declaration, and who made their fearless ap- 
peal to God and the world in behalf of the rights 
of mankind, were both lion-hearted and noble- 
minded. 

Upon this desk was written, in words as pure 
and true as the word of inspiration, that docu- 
ment which opened up "a new era in the history 
of the civilized world." Its fit resting place is 
with the nation's choicest treasures. It is a pre- 
cious memorial of Jefferson, more eloquent and 
suggestive than any statue of marble or bronze 
which may commemorate his deeds. In accept- 
ing it in the name of the nation we recognize the 
elevated private character, the eminent virtue, 
the profound knowledge, the lofty statesman- 
ship, and the sincere patriotism of Jefferson, and 
we honor him as the father of popular govern- 
ment and as the great apostle of liberty. 

To the pledge of safe custody with which we 
accept this gift we join the solemn promise that 
with still greater fidelity we will guard the in- 
heritance of free institutions which has come to 



10 

us throuy] 1 the valor of Washington and the 
wisdom of Jefferson, and that we will faithfully 
transmit, undimmed and unbroken, their richest 
legacies — Liberty and the Union. [Great ap- 
plause.] 

Mr. Tucker. Mr. Speaker, I most cordially 
second the resolution offered by the honorable 
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Crapo]. 

It is an interesting fact that citizens of Massa- 
chusetts, who are also descendants of the author 
of the Declaration of Independence, thus min- 
gling in their veins the blood of the two most 
ancient Commonwealths of the Union, should 
present to the United States to-day this precious 
memento of that great paper which was written 
by a son of Virginia, and was supported by the 
powerful and fervid eloquence of an illustrious 
son of Massachusetts. 

How wonderful and curious is the power of 
the imagination to infuse the immortality of hu- 
man thought into this unconscious desk that felt 
the impress of that pen which vindicated the 
already existent fact of the freedom and inde- 
pendence of the thirteen American States ! We 



11 

have long had the original paper among our 
archives, and now we have the desk on which it 
was written. How vividly these recall the head 
and heart and hand of Jefferson, the writer; of 
Adams, the advocate ; and of each of those other 
representatives of the original thirteen States 
whose signatures to the paper have given them 
an immortal fame ! 

The office of the true statesman is akin to that 
of the poet. The statesman must interpret and 
embody in words or deeds the latent thoughts, 
interests, purposes, and destiny of his people. 
In a great crisis, it is his to manifest to them, 
and to declare to the world, in well-digested 
forms, the causes of present action, and to fore- 
cast the future policy of his country. Under the 
inspiration of such a statesman, a people becomes 
conscious of its appointed work, and labors intel- 
ligently to achieve by the wisest methods the 
highest objects of national ambition. 

In this sense, there was nothing new in the 
Declaration of Independence. The rough jewels 
of a people's thought were gathered, polished, 
and set in this splendid coronet placed upon 



12 

the brow of a virgin continent by the genius of 
Jefferson. From the teeming soil of his fertile 
and comprehensive mind sprang fruit-bearing 
thoughts for the generations following; and he 
nttered them in an age and to men of simple 
tastes and habits, whose heroic natures preferred 
conflict to indolent submission to wrong, if by a 
brave struggle freedom and independence could 
be won. Their appetite for liberty had not been 
perverted by the taste of luxury, nor their pas- 
sion for independence corrupted by self-indul- 
gence. War was needed to win liberty and in- 
dependence. Luxury could have won neither ; 
but let us not forget it may, as it has done, cause 
the loss of both after they have been gained by 
patient endurance and heroic courage. 

It must be remembered that the English-speak- 
ing people of the Colonies were inheritors of the 
muniments of Anglo-Saxon liberty, ascertained 
and established in the thirteenth century by 
Magna Charta, the written constitution of Eng- 
land, which itself declared everything to be void 
that was contrary thereto; that the English rev- 
olution of the seventeenth century was our own ; 



13 

that in 1623, before James I, the Pedant King-, 
died, Virginia declared by statute, what was con- 
firmed as fundamental law by treaty in 1651 
with the commonwealth of England, that the 
people of Virginia could not be taxed but by the 
consent of her own house of burgesses; that 
Massachusetts in 1636, and other Colonies subse- 
quently, approved the same vital principle; that 
Samnel Adams in May, 1764, in Faneuil Hall, 
and Patrick Henry in May, 1765, in the house 
of burgesses of Virginia, in solemn and defiant 
tones, denounced taxation by any other means 
as tyrannical and against law; that a congress of 
nine Colonies in October, 1765, proclaimed the 
same doctrine; that on the 14th of October, 1774, 
the first Continental Congress, having met Sep- 
tember 5, 1774, nemine coiitradicente, declared 
that the inhabitants of the English Colonies, by 
the laws of nature, the principles of the English 
constitution, and their several charters or com- 
pacts, were " entitled to the free and exclusive 
power of legislation" in all cases of "taxation 
and internal polity" in their "several provincial 
legislatures," as they were not and could not 



14 

be properly represented in the British Parlia- 
ment ; that representation and taxation must go 
together; that jury trial was their "great and 
inestimable privilege " ; that the keeping a stand- 
ing army in any Colony in time of peace, with- 
out the consent of its legislature, was against 
law ; and that they claimed all of these as 
" their indubitable rights and liberties," and 
insisted they could not be altered or abridged 
without their own consent " in their several 
provincial legislatures." 

And it is interesting to state further, that Mr. 
Jefferson had already written the preamble to 
the constitution of Virginia (drawn by the mas- 
ter hand of George Mason, of Gunsten Hall), 
which had been adopted on the 29th of June, 
1776, in which preamble are recited the charges 
against the Crown and Parliament of Great Brit- 
ain, with little difference of phraseology from 
that used in the great Declaration itself. Nor do 
I doubt that both were written on this mahogany 
desk in the city of Philadelphia. It is obvious, 
therefore, that the ideas embodied in the Dec- 
laration had been floating more or less distinctly 



15 

in the minds of our revolutionary fathers for 
years before Mr. Jefferson put his hand to that 
formal statement of a people's thoughts. 

Nor must it be forgotten that in 1775 the 
Colonies in Congress assembled, as well as in 
their respective legislatures, had taken up arms 
for the defense of their liberties, while disclaim- 
ing any purpose to sever their political relations 
to Great Britain. Lexington, Concord, and 
Bunker Hill, Crown Point and Ticonderoga, 
Great Bridge, Moore's Creek, and Fort Moultrie, 
and other fields were stained with the blood of 
men fighting for their liberties against the gov- 
ernment whose legitimate authority they still 
acknowledged. 

But the time had come for rebellion against 
their government to cease and for a revolution 
of their government to begin. Rebellion had 
sought to alter the course and policy of admin- 
istration, and had failed. Revolution was needed 
to " alter and abolish" the existing governments 
and to institute new governments, securing the 
rights and respecting the liberties of the people. 
Accordingly we find that Massachusetts, New 



16 

Hampshire, Connecticut, Ehode Island, North 
and South Carolina early in 1776 took steps to 
establish new governments for their respective 
people. In April, 1776, Massachusetts directed 
all of her writs to issue in the name of " the 
people and government of Massachusetts," and 
not in the name of the king. On the 15th of 
May, 1776, the convention of the people of 
Virginia met in Williamsburg, and on that day 
declared for a "total separation from the Crown 
and government of Great Britain," and on the 
same day instructed her delegates in Congress 
to propose to Congress "to declare the united 
colonies free and independent states, absolved 
from all allegiance to or dependence upon the 
Crown or Parliament of Great Britain." The 
convention on the 12th of June, 1776, adopted 
a declaration of rights, and on the 29th of June, 
1776, a constitution, by both of which Virginia 
declared her complete independence. 

We are thus prepared to understand why 
John Adams, in the debate in Congress on the 
resolution for a declaration of independence, 
offered by Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, on 



17 

the 7th of June, 1776, argued that "the ques- 
tion was not whether by a declaration of inde- 
pendence we should make ourselves what we 
are not, but whether we should declare a fact 
which already exists"; and hence the Declara- 
tion itself affirmed that " these united colonies 
are, and of right ought to be, free and independ- 
ent states ; that they are absolved from all alle- 
giance to the British Crown; and that all political 
connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 

Let us now endeavor to present a brief sum- 
mary of the primordial principles of American 
polity, formulated by the comprehensive genius 
of Jefferson, the true impersonation of the new 
era of free thought, free conscience, free com- 
merce, free men, and a free continent. 

First. Mark its denunciation of standing arm- 
ies in time of peace without legislative consent, 
its declaration for the supremacy of the civil 
over the military power, for an independent 
judiciary, for impartial jury trial, for the bond 
indissoluble between representation and taxa- 
tion, and for free government by and under law. 
014 2 



Second. Mark its clear assertion of the equal- 
ity of the individual right of every man to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as 
endowments of the Creator, not an assertion of 
an equality in the endowments themselves, but 
in the right of each to that with winch his Crea- 
tor has endowed him, inalienable by himself, 
because it would be a breach of his duty thus 
to relinquish the trust reposed in him, and 
inalienable by all others, because a violation 
of the right divinely vested in him. 

This is the foundation stone of all individual 
liberty under all forms of political institutions. 

Third. Note the germ of local self-government 
as an essential to liberty resulting from the 
demonstrated impracticability of good govern- 
ment for any people when it is controlled by 
another people. The power which governs must 
not be alien to but must be in sympathy with 
the interests of the government, or tyranny will 
be the result. It was not the tea tax or the 
stamp act which caused the Revolution. They 
were the occasions of it. They only demon- 
strated that it was an intolerable evil to any 



* 19 

people where there was a want of sympathy 
between those who laid and those who paid 
taxes. In the language of Burke, in his speech 
on American taxation, when speaking of John 
Hampden and ship money, " The payment of 
half twenty shillings on the principle it was 
demanded, would have made him a slave." The 
tax was small : the principle was great. 

Rightly to be great 
Is not to stir without great argument ; 
But greatly to find quarrel in. a straw 
When honor's at the stake ! 

Submission was slavery ! 

Resistance was liberty ! 

Fourth. The declaration of the right of revo- 
lution when existing governments wholly fail to 
be administered for the protection of the rights 
of the people, the right of every people to mold 
the form and control the administration of its 
government according to their will, thus basing 
all government on the consent of the governed ; 
the excellence of popular government of a rep- 
resentative democracy — these were all clearly 
indicated in this paper. And Mr. Jefferson, by his 
subsequent advocacy of the freedom of the land 
from the fetters of primogeniture and entails and by 



20 

his act for religious freedom, as well as by his whole 
life, vindicated the consistency of his devotion to 
the liberty of the people under a government of 
law restrained and guided by themselves. 

Fifth. But it is impossible not to see that in 
the minds of Jefferson and his contemporaries 
there was a larger view, looking to the con- 
tinental questions of international importance 
connected with this new era of free thouarht, 
free conscience, free commerce, and the new 
institutions of democratic republics. 

In 1823 Mr. Jefferson wrote a letter to Presi- 
dent Monroe upon the promulgation of the doc- 
trine bearing the name of the latter, in which 
he says : 

Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to 
entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our sec- 
ond, never to suffer Europe to meddle with our cisat- 
lantic affairs. 

In the debate upon the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, furnished by Mr. Jefferson to Mr. 
Madison, and published in the first volume of 
the Madison Papers, there is a reference to our 
prospective relations with Europe which shows 
that the doctrine of continental independence 



21 

was in the minds and hearts of the men of 1776, 
and as a corollary from their great Declaration 
it became a fixed canon of our foreign policy 
in 1823. 

Such, Mr. Speaker, as I understand them, are 
some of the most important principles recalled 
by the presence among us to-day of this uncon- 
scious witness of the work of that remarkable 
man whose pen embodied the idea and purpose 
of the people of these States for the security of 
their liberty and for the independence of the 
American continent. Upon his tomb he left to 
be inscribed this, as the chief of his triple claims 
to the remembrance of mankind — in these words : 

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Ameri- 
can Independence, of the statute of Virginia for relig- 
ious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia. 

Adams and Jefferson ; sons of Massachusetts 
and Virginia ; co-workers in the adoption of this 
grand charter of freedom ; twin brothers of the 
Revolution; rival representatives of the two 
types of political opinion in America ; after the 
strifes of a long political career, they passed 
together, in friendly reunion, into the land which 



22 

is concealed from human vision, crowned with 
the benedictions of the people to whose liberty, 
independence, and welfare their lives had been 
patriotically consecrated. 

The old thirteen have become thirty-eight 
States. May not the interest excited by this 
simple memorial inspire in the representatives of 
these States the renewal of the pledge of " Lives 
and fortunes and sacred honor," to the perpetua- 
tion of our free institutions and to the promotion 
of the glory of our common country, by a faith- 
ful adherence to that great Constitution, which 
was ordained and established to secure the bless- 
ings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity ? 
[Prolonged applause.] 

The Speaker. The question is on the engross- 
ment and third reading of the joint resolution. 

The joint resolution was ordered to be en- 
grossed and read a third time ; and being en- 
grossed, it was accordingly read the third time, 
and passed by a unanimous vote. 

The Speaker. The Chair will cause to be 
conveyed to the Senate the desk, together with 
the resolution passed by the House. 



PROCEEDINGS 

IN 

THE SENATE. 



MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE. 

A message from the House of Representatives, 
by Mr. George M. Adams, its Clerk, announced 
that the House had passed a joint resolution 
(H. R. No. 290) accepting the gift of the desk 
used by Thomas Jefferson in writing the Dec- 
laration of Independence ; in which it requested 
the concurrence of the Senate. 

ACCEPTANCE OF JEFFERSON'S DESK. 

The Vice-President. The Chair lays before 
the Senate a message from the President of the 
United States, which will be read. 

The message was read, as follows : 

To the Senate and House of Representatives : 

I have the honor to inform Congress that Mr. J. Kan- 
dolph Coolidge, Dr. Algernon Coolidge, Mr. Thomas 

23 



24 

Jefferson Coolidge, and Mrs. Ellen D wight, of Massa- 
chusetts, the heirs of the late Joseph Coolidge, jr., 
desire to present to the United States the desk on 
which the Declaration of Independence was written. 
It bears the following inscription in the handwriting 
of Thomas Jefferson : 

" Thomas Jefferson gives this writing-desk to Joseph 
Coolidge, jr., as a memorial of his affection. It was 
made from a drawing of his own, by Ben. Eandall, 
cabinet-maker, of Philadelphia, with whom he first 
lodged on his arrival in that city in May, 1776, and is 
the identical one on which he wrote the Declaration of 
Independence. 

" Politics as well as religion has its superstitions. 
These, gaining strength with time, may one day give 
imaginary value to this relic for its association with the 
birth of the great charter of our independence. 

" Monticello, November 18, 1825." 

The desk was placed in my possession by Hon. Kob- 
ert C. Winthrop, and is herewith transmitted to Con- 
gress, with the letter of Mr. Winthrop, expressing the 
wish of the donors " to offer it to the United States, 
that it may hereafter have a place in the Department 
of State in connection with the immortal instrument 
which was written upon it in 1776." 

I respectfully recommend that such action may be 
taken by Congress as may be deemed appropriate with 
reference to a gift to the nation so precious in its his- 
tory and for the memorable associations which belong 
to it. 

BUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Executive Mansion, April 22, 1 880. 



25 

Washington, D. C, April 11, 1880. 

My Dear Sir : I have been privileged to bring with 
me from Boston, as a present to the United States, a 
very precious historical relic. It is the little desk on 
which Mr. Jefferson wrote the original draught of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

This desk was given by Mr. Jefferson himself to 
my friend the late Joseph Coolidge, of Boston, at the 
time of his marriage to Jefferson's granddaughter, Miss 
Randolph ; and it bears an autograph inscription, of 
singular interest, written by the illustrious author of 
the Declaration in the very last year of his life. 

On the recent death of Mr. Coolidge, whose wife had 
died a year or two previously, the desk became the 
property of their children — Mr. J. Randolph Coolidge, 
Dr. Algernon Coolidge, Mr. Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, 
and Mrs. Ellen Dwight — who now desire to offer it to the 
United States, so that it may henceforth have a place 
in the Department of State, in connection with the im- 
mortal instrument which was written upon it in 1776. 

They have done me the honor to make me the medium 
of this distinguished gift, and I ask permission to place 
it in the hands of the Chief Magistrate of the nation in 
their name and at their request. 

Believe me, dear Mr. President, with the highest 
respect, very faithfully, your obedient servant, 

Robert C. Winthrop. 

His Excellency Rutherford B. Hayes, 

President of the United States. 

The Vice-President. The Chair lays before 
the Senate the joint resolution received from the 
House of Representatives. 



26 

The joint resolution (H. R. No. 290) accepting 
the gift of the desk used by Thomas Jefferson 
in writing the Declaration of Independence was 
read the first time by its title. 

The joint resolution was read the second time 
at length, as follows : 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, 
&c, That the thanks of this Congress be presented 
to J. Randolph Coolidge, Algernon Coolidge, Thomas 
Jefferson Coolidge, and Mrs. Ellen D wight, citizens of 
Massachusetts, for the patriotic gift of the writing-desk 
presented by Thomas Jefferson to their father, the late 
Joseph Coolidge, upon which the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was written ; and 

Be it further resolved, That this precious relic is here- 
by accepted in the name of the nation, and that the 
same be deposited for safe-keeping in the Department 
of State of the United States ; and 

Be it further resolved, That a copy of these resolu- 
tions, signed by the President of the Senate and 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, be trans- 
mitted to the donors. 

The Vice-President. This joint resolution 
having been read twice, is before the Senate as 
in Committee of the Whole. 

Mr. Dawes. Mr. President, I cannot think 
that the Senate will object to an interruption of 
its ordinary business to consider for a brief mo- 



27 



ment so interesting a subject as that contained 
in the resolutions which have just come from the 
House. The message of the President and the 
resolutions themselves have already communi- 
cated to us so much of the history of the subject 
to which they allude that little more is necessary 
to put us in' possession of the facts which im- 
part to it an interest and value justifying these 
proceedings. 

This small, plain, unpolished mahogany writ- 
ing-desk was once the property of Thomas 
Jefferson. Why it has been preserved with 
scrupulous care, and now arrests the attention 
of the nation, he himself, after keeping it for 
half a century, has told- us in an inscription 
placed upon it by his own hand in the last year 
of his life, in these words : 

Thomas Jefferson gives this writing-desk to Joseph 
Coohdge, jr., as a memorial of his affection. It was 
made from a drawing of his own, by Ben. Randall 
cabinet-maker, of Philadelphia, with whom he firs 
lodged on his arrival in that city in May, 177b, and 
is tL identical one on which he wrote the Declaration 
of Independence, Politics as well as religion has its 
superstitions. These, gaining strength with time, maj 
one dav give imaginary value to this relic for its asso- 



ciation with the birth of the great charter of our inde- 
pendence. 
November 15, 1S25. 

Mr. Coolidge was the husband, of a grand- 
daughter of Mr. Jefferson. He was a resident of 
Boston, and has recently deceased. His chil- 
dren, Mr. J. Randolph Coolidge, Mr. Algernon 
Coolidge, Mr. Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, and 
Mrs. Ellen Dwight, through our distinguished 
fellow-citizen, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, now 
present this most remarkable relic to the United 
States. 

Embellishment or enlargement can add noth- 
ing to this simple story. It is, of itself, enough 
to draw to this plain memorial the homage of 
mankind, and will be told to listening pilgrims 
and votaries in all the generations that shall 
count the years of the Republic and the spread 
of free institutions in the world. The man, the 
occasion, and the subject crowd in upon our 
thoughts and fill us with the admiration and 
wonder of those who look upon the place where 
miracles have been wrought, 

The youngest and least experienced of all 



I 



29 

his associates in practical government, none of 
whom had shared in anything but the affairs 
of a dependent colony, *is called upon to commit 
to writing, for the judgment of all mankind and 
for all time, the reasons for the dismemberment 
of an empire and the creation of a republic 
among the nations of the earth. And the work 
thus undertaken was so accomplished, upon this 
writing-desk, that the test of a century of criti- 
cism and trial has only made it more clear that 
nothing* could have been added or excluded. 
Constitutions based upon it have indeed been 
altered and amended many times, but it has 
always been in the endeavor to more and more 
conform them to the great truths enunciated in 
this immortal instrument. Mr. Jefferson termed 
it in the inscription upon this memorial, after 
fifty years of experience and growth, " the 
charter of our independence." It is more. A 
century of political commotion and upheaval 
has proven it to be the great' title-deed of free 
institutions throughout the world. 

It cannot but be that everything connected 
with the production of this wonderful instru- 



30 

ment will be cherished by the American people 
with an almost sacred reverence, and by lovers 
of free institutions everywhere with the regard 
which draws the devout to a shrine. Let, there- 
fore, this writing-desk, upon which it was writ- 
ten, be gladly accepted by the nation and care- 
fully preserved with the great charter itself in 
the archives of that mighty government thus 
called into being. And there, with the sword 
of Washington and the staff of Franklin, which 
the nation has already accepted with reverent 
gratitude, let these muniments of our title be 
preserved evermore. 

I should, Mr. President, fail altogether in my 
duty to the people of Massachusetts if I did 
not give expression at this time to their great 
gratification for the large share that Common- 
wealth has had from the beginning in all that 
makes this occasion proper or worthy of atten- 
tion. Massachusetts and Virginia had from the 
outset of the Revolution conspicuously joined 
hands in the great struggle, sharing the oblo- 
quies and perils with which it opened on their 
soil. Arthur Lee, of Virginia, had, for many 



31 

years before, as the agent of Massachusetts, 
pleaded her cause before the British throne. 
Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee kindled 
together the fires of the Revolution. It was on 
motion of John Adams, in a most critical period 
in the temper of the Colonies, that Washing- 
ton himself was called to the command of the 
American Armies. Mr. Adams was with Mr. 
Jefferson upon the committee instructed by the 
Continental Congress to draft a declaration of 
independence, and joined in imposing that duty 
upon one many years his junior, because of his 
"reputation for a matchless felicity in embody- 
ing popular ideas." That matchless felicity of 
Mr. Jefferson produced the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and the peerless eloquence of John 
Adams carried it through a Iiesitating Congress. 
These distinguished patriots having each in 
turn enjoyed the highest honors of the Re- 
public they had together so conspicuously 
helped to create, were both permitted by Prov- 
idence to close their illustrious career on the 
fiftieth anniversary of the day they had made 
immortal, and to pass together to their reward 



32 

amid the shouts of a people applauding their 
great work. 

And now this precious relic, around which so 
many memories of the great actors of the Revo- 
lution cluster, kept by Virginia for fifty years 
and then committed by its illustrious owner to 
the care of Massachusetts for another half cen- 
tury, is to-day donated to the United States by 
those in whose veins commingle the blood of 
both these ancient Commonwealths. Thus do 
Massachusetts and Virginia again stand side by 
side amid the glories which have come down to 
us from the Revolution. 

I hope, Mr. President, that the third read- 
ing of the resolution will be unanimously 
ordered. 

Mr. Johnston. Mr. President, as one of the 
Senators from the State in which Mr. Jefferson 
was born, it is a duty most agreeable to me to 
move concurrence in the resolution under con- 
sideration. 

One of Mr. Jefferson's biographers describes 
the relic now before us as " a little writing-desk 
only three inches high," which has upon it this 



33 

inscription placed there by Mr. Jefferson him- 
self: 

Thos. Jefferson gives this writing-desk to Joseph 
Coolidge, jr., as a memorial of affection. It was made 
from a drawing of his own, by Beuj. Eandall, cabinet- 
maker, of Philadelphia, with whom he first lodged on 
his arrival in that city in May, 1776, and is the identical 
one on which he wrote the Declaration of Independence. 
Politics, as well as religion, has its superstitions. These 
gaining strength with time may one day give imaginary 
value to this relic for its association with the birth of the 
great charter of our independence. 

Monticello, November 18, 1825. 

And though he was then nearly eighty-three 
years old, it is written in the same bold, clear, 
and strong handwriting in which he penned the 
Declaration of Independence almost half a cen- 
tury before, when he was a young man, only a 
little more than thirty. He speaks of the super- 
stitions of politics and of the imaginary value 
which may one day attach to this relic. But 
the reverence a free people are ready to accord 
to the instruments of such events as this little 
desk chronicles is neither superstition nor an 
idle and empty imagination ; for on that little 

desk was done a work greater than any battle, 
014—3 



34 

loftier than any poem, more enduring than any 
monument. 

When the Declaration of Independence was 
written this earth was centuries old ; many peo- 
ple had existed, many battles had been fought, 
many struggles had been made, and many pat- 
riots had lived ; revolutions, rebellions, and wars 
for freedom had been waged, but civil liberty, 
as we now see, enjoy, and understand it, was 
still unknown. The struggles of past days had 
been merely for a change of actual government, 
and not so much for new and better principles. 
It was to get rid of the then ruler, but to let the 
new one, put in the place of the old, govern on 
the same platform. When Caesar was killed the 
conspirators had no thought of anything but 
freeing the country from an overshadowing man. 
In their conception the only thing to be done 
was to give the reins into new hands. But at 
last came the author of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. What had been cloudy and obscure 
and seen dimly by others was a clear vision to 
him. He saw not only what the rights of a 
citizen were, but how to defend, guard, and pro- 



35 

tect them ; not only what true civil liberty was, 
but how to acquire and how to preserve it. And 
thus our Revolution was therefore not a simple 
change of government for the people of the thir- 
teen colonies ; it was not the case of a depend- 
ent territory breaking- away from the mother 
country and enforcing the separation by arms, 
and then conducting its affairs upon the same 
old plan ; nor was it only the birth of a new 
nation, of one government more added to those 
already existing ; but with the establishment of 
this new nation came new theories, practices, and 
principles. 

Bills of right and written constitutions declared 
and denned the duties, powers, and limitations of 
the government and the rights of the citizen. 

For the divine right of kings was substituted 
the sacred rights of the people. 

In place of the service of the serf to the baron 
was established a well-regulated militia and the 
right of the people to keep and bear arms. 

Instead of privileged classes and orders of 
nobility all men were declared equal under the 
law. 



36 

The sword was the governing power in many 
countries, but here it was made the servant of 
the civil law. 

Instead of subsidies levied by governments 
and collected by force and spent without re- 
sponsibilities, no citizen here is taxed who is not 
represented, and no tax is levied except by the 
representatives of the people. 

Instead of blind obedience, ignorance, and the 
vuiion of church and state, " Congress can make 
no law respecting an establishment of religion or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridg- 
ing the freedom of speech or of the press, or of 
the right of the people peacefully to assemble 
and to petition the government for a redress of 
grievances." 

And without undervaluing the great men who 
lived and acted with Mr. Jefferson, it is no dis- 
paragement to them to say that he was the prin- 
cipal actor in the events of that day. His brain 
originated, his hand executed. The principles 
he enunciated, so new then, are already old. In 
less than a single century they are taking root 
all over the world, and written constitutions and 



37 

representatives of the people are now the rule 
in civilized nations. 

Mr. President, I move the adoption of the 
resolution. 

The joint resolution was ordered to a third 
reading, and read the third time. 

The Vice-President. The resolution having 
had three several readings, the question is Shall 
it pass f 

The joint resolution was passed. 



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